Stéphane Voinot - Ireland's World Championship Squad | Player Profile

Stéphane Voinot - Quick Facts

A Leinster Singles Silver and a Precision Shooting Runner-Up

Stéphane Voinot plays out of Park Pétanque Club at Bushy Park in Terenure, Dublin, the club behind most of Ireland's recent international results. In 2025 he put together a strong domestic season, finishing runner-up to clubmate Sariff Antooaroo in both of the season's marquee individual events: the Leinster Provincial Singles at Marlay Park in April, and the IPA National Precision Shooting Competition at Park Pétanque Club in August, where he placed 2nd in a 17-player field. He also featured among the qualifiers at the Leinster Provincial Singles Qualifiers in May 2025, alongside Antooaroo, Kevin Meniel and Randeea Nundram.

Celtic Challenge Champion

Voinot was part of Ireland A's squad at the Celtic Challenge in 2025, hosted at Macduff, Scotland, where Ireland secured its third consecutive title with 36 match wins over the weekend, beating hosts Scotland and Wales. He lined up alongside Antooaroo under captain Colin Delaney, with Kevin Meniel also on the roster.

European Selection and a Historic World Championship Qualification

Voinot's biggest results arrived in 2025. At the European Men's Triples Championship selection trials held at Griffeen Valley Pétanque Club in Lucan on 29 March 2025, he won four of his five round-robin games, enough to secure one of the four places on Ireland's squad alongside Franck Breteche, Sariff Antooaroo and Jimmy Di Fusco for the European Championship in Santa Susanna, Spain.

Later that year, Voinot helped Ireland make history at the European qualifying tournament for the 2026 Men's Triples World Championship, held on 29 November 2025 at the national boules court in Belvaux, Luxembourg. Drawn entirely from Park Pétanque Club, the Ireland squad of Voinot, Antooaroo, Afzal Buhorun and Colin Delaney won three of its five games against a field of 18 nations to secure Ireland's first-ever place at the World Championship - see our 2026 World Championship preview for the full field Ireland will face in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The Irish Pétanque Association, a volunteer-run body, ran a fundraising campaign to help cover the squad's travel costs to Thailand, describing the qualification as "the first time in many years that Ireland have competed at World level."

Legacy

For a federation with just 22 affiliated clubs nationally, Stéphane Voinot's run of results - back-to-back domestic runner-up finishes in 2025, a Celtic Challenge title, and a place in the squad that delivered Ireland's first-ever Pétanque World Championship qualification - makes him one of the steady hands behind Irish pétanque's recent rise. His path, built entirely through Park Pétanque Club and the IPA's domestic circuit, also reflects how a small, volunteer-run federation can still produce players capable of competing at World Championship level.

Note: biographical details beyond his competition record (birth date, hometown background) could not be confirmed from the sources available for this profile - consistent with the generally sparse international press coverage of Irish pétanque outside Celtic Challenge and World Championship-adjacent results. Ireland's result at the 2025 European Men's Triples Championship itself in Santa Susanna could also not be confirmed from available sources.